January 6 Convict Says He Was Tortured In Prison Under Biden, Seeks $17 Million From Feds

A man convicted for his role in the January 6 Capitol protest says he spent years being tortured in jails under the Biden administration, with guards leaving him at the mercy of gangs who beat him for his political beliefs, and keeping him in solitary confinement for months.

Ryan Samsel said prison officials once strapped him to a chair for 17 hours in a gymnasium while groups of schoolchildren gawked at him, and forced him to live in a solitary confinement cell smeared with an MS-13 member’s feces, with no way to clean it. Someone anonymously called a hospital to cancel a needed medical procedure, he said.

During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump highlighted Samsel as perhaps the most mistreated January 6 defendant, saying “These people are being persecuted. One defendant was allegedly viciously and savagely beaten, resulting in numerous broken bones in his face and loss of sight.”

Samsel has now filed a legal notice under the Federal Tort Claims Act alleging 62 instances of abuse and requesting $18 million in compensation, with his lawyer noting that the government even paid foreign terrorists when they faced abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

The case raises questions about what the Trump administration might do for January 6 defendants who were pardoned after being physically, mentally, and financially broken.

“Nobody should forget what Biden did to these patriotic Americans, and a strong signal must be given that torturing citizens is simply not in the cards,” Samsel’s attorney, Peter Haller, told The Daily Wire, who called it cruel and unusual punishment.

Samsel was arrested January 30, 2021 for allegedly pushing a crowd control bike rack toward police officers. He remained in a series of jails and prisons until January 20, 2025, when Trump pardoned him.

Samsel was assaulted in the Washington, D.C., jail on March 21, 2021. Medical records from Howard University indicate that the assault led to reduced vision in his right eye and seizures, as well as exacerbation of an existing vascular condition, the filing said.

A D.C. judge “determined that Mr. Samsel should be transferred to an undisclosed jail for his protection and to receive the medical care he was entitled to. He was transferred to Rappahannock Regional Jail in Virginia,” the filing said.

At that jail, a cellmate called Samsel a terrorist and attacked him. A doctor there said that Samsel needed serious surgery, including the removal of two ribs due to blood clots, but the jail said it didn’t have the ability to provide him the necessary care.

Samsel was transferred in July 2021 to the Central Virginia Regional Jail, but none of his medical records followed him, and the recommendations of the University of Virginia doctor he saw there were never followed, his lawyer said.

While he was in the medical unit, a guard slammed his head into the ground; he woke up in a wheelchair being transferred to the hospital, the filing said. When he returned to the jail, he was placed in solitary confinement with the lights on at all times, “a known form of torture,” it continued.

“For approximately seventy to ninety days, Mr. Samsel was housed in reception in a cell that was three feet wide and six feet long. The cell was so small that he had to stand his mattress up to walk. When he asked the deputy warden why he was being kept in such confinement, he was told there was nowhere else to put him and that he was classified as a sex offender,” despite never having been charged with any sex crimes, the filing said.

“He could not see out, and the lights were left on at all times. He was never allowed out for exercise,” it continued.

Ryan Samsel

After Virginia State Police documented that “Mr. Samsel’s face hit an officer’s knee” and the jail could not provide any evidence that Samsel was given an hour outside each day, which even the most dangerous criminals are supposed to get, he was ordered transferred again.

He was moved to Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia, where “guards stabbed his legs and ankles with keys, then rushed him toward the door and slammed his face and head into it. After the doors opened, he was punched repeatedly in the corridor in view of sixty to ninety inmates,” the filing said.

He was taken to a hospital which documented “a broken orbital and stab marks on his legs.” He called 911, and when authorities contacted the jail, an officer involved with the beating “acted as if he did not know who Mr. Samsel was,” the legal papers said.

At a hearing soon after, Samsel “had outbursts in court” detailing his treatment in jail, after which he “was placed in a restraint chair for approximately seventeen hours, on display for local school children to see through a window. He was left in the chair until he was unable to stand due to numbness, then dragged out by officers. He had to sit in his own waste,” the filing said.

Samsel was then transferred to a federal detention facility in Philadelphia, where “following a telephone call in which he expressed concerns regarding FBI corruption,” he was held in solitary confinement for 20 days, until he was moved to the Lewisburg prison.

“At Lewisburg Penitentiary, a physician initially recommended that Mr. Samsel be placed on house arrest due to the severity of his medical condition but later reversed his opinion after receiving pressure from government officials,” the filing said.

Haller said in an interview that Samsel “was not a flight risk, and denying him medical treatment appears to have been an intentional act.”

The day before a scheduled surgery, guards placed Samsel in “the hole,” and someone “anonymously called the surgeon assigned to his case and canceled all his medical appointments,” the filing said.

While in solitary confinement, he had to rotate rooms every 10 days, and was behind an MS-13 member “who would defecate all over his cell and smear it everywhere.” Samsel would be forced to clean it without any tools, and resorted to breathing down the drain for fresh air, the filing said.

Three months later, he was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, one of the most notorious prisons in America, where he remained from 2022 to 2025. Samsel was housed in a violent gang unit designated for the Mac Baller gang, where he “attacked for his political beliefs,” the filing said, at one point forcing him to use dental floss to suture a wound.

Samsel, a devout Christian, was “denied access to religious services and was never permitted to have a Bible, despite repeated requests,” the filing said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has until May to decide whether she wants to settle the case, at which point Samsel can sue the government if the Justice Department declines. The Daily Wire has asked the Department of Justice if it has made any assessment about the case.